Crafts by Children

This is Koren's (age 9 yrs) present to her younger sister. It started off by being a one-squared wall hanging (the cat collage first) and we liked it so much that it grew into three squares. It is all made of felt. Each square was first drawn as a pattern by Koren and then the paper pattern used to cut the material. She used a good fabric glue for all the work but it is then oversewn with beads in places for emphasis, i.e. the cat's eyes and whiskers and the centre of the tulip. This is when I found out she could sew, wonderful! We then glued the completed squares onto the background felt fabric and I sewed this to a backing material (blackout curtain lining material) for weight. As you can see this is then hanging from a piece of dowling slotted through buttoned tabs.

Ione's (age 12 yrs) birthday present to her youngest sister. The two little dolls were made from a simple pattern we found in a McCall's book, Scrap Crafts. The hair had to be bright pink for one doll and red for the second and surprisingly they each had a different personality because of this. The hair was attached by a mixture of sewing and sticking. The little basket was bought for a couple of pounds and the bed linen, mattress and pillows were made from an old sheet and the quilt from a piece of an old dress. The duck was added by her sister for the dolls to play with!

The sun and the planets by Ione age 9 yrs. This cost me as she wanted gold fabric as her base! The eye sockets were belt buckles and the eyes gold buttons. The sun is padded to make it stand out. We achieved this by cutting through from the back after sewing on the sun, pushing the padding through and then securing the slit. This of course was inside when the cushion was completed and would not be seen. When we make a cushion the cushion pad is always made seperately to allow for washing or to re-use again in the future. This is mainly glued but the sun itself had to be sewn by machine which was mostly sewn by me but this was the beginning of Ione using my sewing machine as she then sewed up the straight edges of the cushion herself.

This is a cushion which Ione made for her sister Nina. It was inspired by the unusual panda-head belt which was no longer used. She added the lace collar, bow and earrings herself.

On the reverse side the belt continues into two hind legs and she added a pocket either side to hold books (or secrets).

This is a very early collage by Ione made when she was 8yrs old. She hadn't yet started to sew, or I didn't trust her with a needle, one or the other.

The handbag held a small musical disc which we found in a Christmas cracker. Pressing the handbag played the tune. It lasted for about a year before it became silent.